Read Star Trek and History Online
Authors: Nancy Reagin
Star Trek and History
Contents
Star Trek Series and Movie Titles
Part One: Characters [Are] Welcome: Backstories
Chapter 1: Riding Posse on the Final Frontier
Western Culture Lassos Eastern Hearts?
Noble Savages in the Neutral Zone
The Federation's Manifest Destiny
JFK, JTK, and the Final New Frontier
Chapter 2: More Than “Just Uhura”
“Changing the Way People See Us”
“The Next Einstein Might Have a Black Face”
“Be Careful What You Wish For”
“Was I Not One of Your Top Students?”
Chapter 3: The Compassionate Country Doctor and Cold-Blooded Biomedicine
The Country Doctor and Biomedical Science at the Crossroads
Dr. Bones McCoy: Marcus Welby in Space
Bones and Spock at the Heart of the Matter
Testing Humanity and the Frankenstein Complex
It's a Hell of a Life, Jean-Luc
Part Two: Kirk and Spock Take on Earth History
Chapter 5: The Final Reflection?
“We Need No Urging to Hate Humans”
“What Hope Is There for the Empire?”
Chapter 6: Vietnam, Star Trek, and the Real Future
Vietnam Genesis, Cosmic Exodus
The Enterprise Changes Course!
Chapter 7: You're Doing It Wrong
Chapter 8: If This Is the (Final) Frontier, Where Are the Natives?
No One Here but Us Noble Savages
A Cartoon but Not a Caricature
Boldly Going . . . a Step Backward
Does Out of Sight Mean Out of Mind?
Who Mourns for Chakotay and His Imaginary Tribe?
A Mixed Grade for a Mixed Legacy
One Man's Terrorist Is Another Man's George Washington
“They're Terrorists, Dammit”: So Let's Negotiate with Them
Chapter 10: To Boldly Go When No One Has Gone Before (or After)
Time Travel: Possibilities and Paradoxes
The Observation Effect, Butterflies, and Further Causality Paradoxes
Violating the Temporal Prime Directive versus Preserving the Timeline
Chapter 11: Shakespeare (and the Rest of the Great Books) in the Original Klingon
“You Do Have Books in the Twenty-fourth Century?”
Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, Not a Literary Historian!
Chapter 12: Information Technology in Star Trek
The Android with a Billion Apps (or: Why Don't I Have Cool Stuff Like That?)
Jean-Luc Picard Has Joined Faceborg
Chapter 13: History on the Holodeck
A New Life-Form Rides the Orient Express
Behaving Badly on the Holodeck
Chapter 14: Why Star Trek's Cartography Is So Stellar, or How the Borg Mapped/Changed Everything
Lines, Logs, and a Frenchman Named Picard
A History of
Star Trek
's Cartography
Ãber-mapping the Unimatrix: The Borg Shift
What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us
Intervening to Right Past Wrongs
The
Enterprise
's Evolving Environmental Mission
Part Four: Other Races Have Histories Too, You Know
Chapter 16: Nothing Unreal Exists
“Vulcan Is Not My Idea of Fun”: Life on a Desert Planet
Is Biology Destiny?: The Nature of Vulcan Difference
“Vulcans. Deep Down, You're All Just a Bunch of Hypochondriacs”: The Dreaded Vulcan Sex Drive
“My Mind to Your Mind . . . My Thoughts to Your Thoughts . . .”
The Animalistic Past: Ancient Vulcan and the Rise of Surak
Relationships with the Galactic Community
Logic Is the Cement of Our Civilization: Vulcan “Humanism”
Logic Is the Beginning of Wisdom, Not the End
Chapter 17: Alien Babes and Alternate Universes
I Am the Goddess of Empathy: The Women of
The Next Generation
New Civilizations, Old Patterns
Kahless the Unforgettable and Karolus Magnus
“Even Half Drunk, Klingons Are among the Best Warriors in the Galaxy”
Chapter 19: Nazis, Cardassians, and Other Villains in the Final Frontier
The History of the Cardassian Empire
Cardassians Aren't Always Nazis; Sometimes They're Soviets
The Place of Cardassians in
Star Trek
History
Negotiating the Legacy of Star Trek and Its Fans
Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved
Cover Design: Wendy Mount
Cover Photograph: © Stocktrek images/Getty Images
Chapter opener design by Forty-five Degree Design LLC
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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For Anne,
Beth, Camille, Claire, KC, and Viki: sisters under the skin
Acknowledgments
Star Trek
Spock:
One man cannot summon the future.
Kirk:
But one man can change the present. . . . In every revolution, there's one man with a vision.
âTOS,
“Mirror, Mirror”
The “man with a vision” who first imagined the
Enterprise
and her crew was Gene Roddenberry, and any book about
Star Trek
must begin by acknowledging the man's profound drive and creativity. The
Star Trek
films, series, novels, and other spin-offs created since the original show aired have attracted a universe of talented writers, actors, producers, technicians, and others who bring them to life. But Roddenberry was the one who began it all, and like all
Star Trek
enthusiasts, I am in his debt. The first television series I was a fan of was
Star Trek
, and without Gene Roddenberry's creation I would not have become a fan of imagined worlds and universes in the same way; and, of course, this book would not exist.
My fellow fans have inspired me, too. Part of the joy in being a fan of any imagined world lies in sharing it with others, discussing and analyzing the characters and the series that you find so compelling. I am fortunate that some of these fans are also scholars who contributed to this book. They've created chapters for this volume that offer clever insights and interesting research for any discussion of the
Enterprise
and its crew and the universe and franchise that Roddenberry created. I'd like to thank all of them for bringing their passion for
Star Trek
to the job of writing about it.
I also thank Ruth Abrams, who helped me and some of the authors to say what we wanted to say more clearly. She always had great suggestions for how to improve the chapters that she read and helped edit, and her comments improved the volume substantially. Janice Liedl was my coconspirator and collaborator on other popular history projects during the months I was working on this book, and I am grateful for her constant encouragement, wonderfully pragmatic judgment, and rock-solid reliability, as well as her intricate knowledge of many canons. Connie Santisteban, Eric Nelson, and Lisa Burstiner at Wiley make the publishing process seem easy; they're experienced at understanding the ways of academics (and fans), and they are a joy to work with.
